Al Halfout

Al Halfout (Egyptian Arabic: الهلفوت‎) is a 1985 film and satire written by Wahid Hamids and directed by Samir Seif [1] and Mustafa Gamaleddin. The cast includes Adel Emam, Ilham Chahine, Saeed Saleh and Salah Kabil. Filming of Al Halfout occurred mainly in Egypt. The film takes a satirical look at Egypt's government and its attitude to the poor.[2][3]

Al Halfout
Directed bySamir Seif
Mustafa Gamaleddin
Produced bySout Al Fan Films
Written byWahid Hamid
Screenplay byWahid Hamid
StarringAdel Emam
Saeed Saleh
Ilham Chahine
Salah Kabil
Music byMokhtar El Said
Production
company
El Nahar
Distributed bySaout El Fen
Release date
  • 1984 (1984)
Running time
118 minutes
CountryEgypt
LanguageArabic

Concept

The movie examines life in the suburbs of Egypt. It focuses on a small village affected by social inequality and a corrupt regime. The role of government is not apparent whereas landlords and rich businessmen appear as unrestrained criminals. To survive, the villagers sell unusual services such as witchcraft. One lady opens a gentlemen's club. The village is timeless with the only dating feature being the train line.

Protagonists

Arafa

Adel Emam plays Arafa, a 34-year-old grocery delivery man who likes to 'hang out' at the market or the railway station. He is lean, clumsy and odd; disorganised with a slow way of speaking. He is poor with no education or prospects. He dreams of marriage but events in the village make this more and more unlikely.

Dosoki

Dosoki, played by Saeed Saleh, works in a cafe at the railway station. He is an Arafa's best friend and does his best to help and consol him. For example, he will give Arafa money or help him to find a different job.

Warda

Warda is a widow played by Ilham Chahine. Arafa maries her.

Plot

Arafa's progress is influenced by traditional cultural practices such as sorcery and by degeneration of society into activities such as prostitution. Despite these things, Arafa eventually marries the widow Warda. A few days later, Arafa finds himself jobless when a younger man takes his place at the market. A local hitman kills a famous businessman. Arafa has the opportunity to assume the identity of the hitman (neither he nor the hitman have ever been seen by the boss' intermediary). Arafa is hired to make a hit. However, when Dosoki is killed by mafia in a gun fight, Arafa tries to escape. Warda discovers this and follows Arafa only to be killed by the mafia herself. Arafa kills all the mafia.

Cast

References
  1. Dictionary of African film makers Armes, Roy. Indiana University Press. Page 118.
  2. "Internet movie data base." Accessed 7 July, 2102.
  3. Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine A clip of the film. Accessed 7 July 2012.
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